Activision And Modern Warfare Remastered

Who knew that something with so much potential could turn into the shining example of corporate greed?

I suppose that it really shouldn’t come as a surprise; it is Activision after all.

I remember the hype surrounding Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Gamers celebrated the break from the WWII era, and I joined in on the cheers. 2007 turned out to be a fantastic year for games, and Modern Warfare was part of my catalog.

I loved Call of Duty 4. I played through the campaign so many times that I had the levels more or less memorized. I loved playing around with the weapons and cheats, and trying to beat my times on the F.N.G. and Mile High Club missions. I invited friends over to my apartment so we could play some splitscreen deathmatch on my 15″ TV, and started lugging my Xbox 360 along to my college bible study group every week so we could play afterwards.

It’s safe to say that I was a fan.

Modern Warfare Remastered Announced!

Fast forward to 2016, to the announcement of a remaster for one of my favorite games from 2007.

Then the news of the paid DLC map pack for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare being remastered came up. Evidently, Activision felt that the updated map pack was worth a price hike, and put it up on the market for $15 ($5 more expensive than the original version). Of course, they padded the value a bit by giving buyers 10 “supply drops” for multiplayer, as if that helped cushion the blow.

And in a move that seemed simultaneously baffling and unsurprising, Activision chose to bring Modern Warfare completely into the modern era of gaming, by introducing microtransactions!

Don’t even get me started about the exclusivity agreements.

So It’s Activision Being Activision?

Pretty much. In the effort to try and prop up the sales of their latest version of Call of Duty, Activision went the route of bundling the two concurrently released games together. So instead of being able to just play the game that they wanted to, customers that wanted Modern Warfare Remastered needed to spend $80+ on it. Futhermore, customers couldn’t just buy the Legacy Edition of the game and sell back the Infinite Warfare disk, as Modern Warfare Remastered required the player’s copy of Infinite Warfare to be in the disk tray.

Now, here we are, close to seven months after the release of Modern Warfare Remastered, and leaks surface that a standalone release of the game is imminent. You know, the standalone release that Activision implied would not be happening. Additionally, that standalone release would also have a hefty pricetag of $40.

Then the rumors were confirmed. Of course, you’ll be able to buy a copy of the game on June 27th, as long as you own a PS4. It appears that Sony managed to strike an exclusivity agreement with Activision to lock other platforms out of the game for an indefinite amount of time.

Might want to keep in mind that you’ll still need to pay $15 to get the extra maps after spending $40 to get the game itself.

Seriously, Activision?

It’s as if they don’t want people to want to buy this game. I understand that their reasoning for not selling Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered separately at launch is that they didn’t want to poach sales from their flagship title. However, I would’ve figured that after getting their money’s worth by only giving their customers the option to buy the Legacy Edition, charging a premium price for 10-year old DLC, and trying to gouge consumers with microtransactions, they’d at least release the standalone version of Modern Warfare Remastered with the one DLC pack.

But… That’s apparently too much to expect from a company like Activision.

So you know how I’m going to celebrate finally being able to buy a remastered version of my favorite Call of Duty game? I’m going to wait until I can find a copy available on the Xbox One, because screw timed-exclusivity; it’ll be a used copy, because Activision doesn’t deserve my money; and I’m going to pay $10 for it max, but only because I’m a tightwad.

The only other thing I have to say is: Thank you, Activision. Thank you for showing gamers everywhere what the epitome of greed looks like in the gaming industry.

What are your thoughts on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered? Let’s here it!

Header Image Source: Activision’s Press Release Kit

Not taking chances with copyright. Activision is trigger-happy with that sort of thing.

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9 Comments

I did. Then again, it is Activision we’re talking about here; I doubt it’s possible to mention Activision and not later use the word “greedy” in the same paragraph without feeling like you missed something (or the term “risk-adverse”). It’s too bad because I really like Call of Duty 4; it’s one of my favorite FPSs. Oh well, guess I’ll stick with the old copy; too bad Activision – better luck next time!

Anyway, yours is probably a sound move; ironically, Activision’s games selling in large quantities works against them in that they end up depreciating in value to a ridiculous extent.

I’ve had a piece in my drafts for ages about this very thing. I got even more screwed because I bought the legacy edition in the US, and the MW download code wouldn’t work with my UK PSN account (even though it said on the box it’d work in all regions). After a few days dealing with Activision Customer Service (and I use that term very loosely) I eventually got a different code, which downloaded….. But still wouldn’t work.

Because of the whole ‘having to have the disc inserted’ BS, the game won’t load properly – and it just keeps telling me to insert the disc that’s already in my freakin’ PlayStation.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Activision before this anyway, but this whole thing was really shitty, even by their standards!

I’m glad that I could be an inspiration! I had a similar post set up a while back, but I ended up deleting it because I felt it became a non-issue. However, Activision’s latest shenanigans were the last straw.

I didn’t think that region locking would be such a big issue in a day and age when supposedly it was over and done with. I wonder if your problem has something to do with the way that PlayStation handles game licenses? I know the Xbox One treats digital and physical as basically the same thing.

Yeah, it seems to only be with PlayStation – and I can play games I buy here in Brazil or the US, but it’s add-ons and downloads that seem to not like the regional conflict. Usually is not a huge deal – an outfit or weapon etc – but this was more of an issue.

And thanks for giving me a bit of a push. I hadn’t even realised they’d pulled the whole “Oh, actually, now you can buy it as a stand alone thing” until I read this, and, like you say, that’s the last straw in a pretty crappy episode.

[…] six months, but I never quite got around to publishing it. Yesterday however – after reading Shelby’s excellent piece about a similar thing – I was reminded of its existence, and thought that, actually, if I published my piece, just […]

On one hand I’m not surprised. Activision has shown that they will gladly attempt to bleed their fans dry. On the other, I’m absolutely flabbergasted by the price tag. $40? Even if you want to say that the Infinite Warfare fans got it at a discount, $40 seems excessive. And then add on the map pack and the remaster just about equals the price of CoD WWII in a couple months. It is just dumb business.

And don’t get me started on the exclusivity. I understand why a company does exclusive content, I do really. But CoD isn’t being outsold by large enough margins on PS4 that you should risk alienating your fans on the other platforms, it is just dumb business.